Week 5 EOC: Trend Production

       Fashion trend forecasting resources help predict trends in the fashion industry. Fashion & trend forecasting is the prediction of mood, behavior and buying habits of the consumer at particular time of season. It is no longer a question of finding your markets or consumers by age, geography or income, but looking into how and what they buy, based on their culture, mood, beliefs, occasion & geographic locations, it is also dependent on fashion cycle and plays a major role in introductory phase of recurring fashion cycles.

 

       Understanding fashion trends forecast is one of the most arduous and calculative work for all, I know most of top business houses around the world totally rely on designers for understanding the same, but on the other side there are others who dont believe in it at all.(1) In current times when we look at technology we know nothing is by chance and there are people who are working behind the scenes, day and night to make things appear easy and affordable to us. Question which often comes to our mind is which trend forecast to use and how we can understand it better. Many technological forecasting methods have been reported in various forecast related books & mentioned in literature of many countries, and they have been successfully applied widely. As trend forecasting results are mainly influenced by the forecasting method used by the end user, it is of utmost importance to determine the method that will be most appropriate to a business model you adopt. Lets identify the main factors affecting Fashion trend forecasting. Each season, the design and merchandising departments worldwide are waiting whats in trend for coming seasons. They rely heavily on creating a new line using these valuable data collected by professional agencies. (2)

       The agencies & Manufacturers may ask consumers directly about their buying preferences or can look in to their buying habits over a period of time. Consumer reactions are recorded and documented to find preferences for certain garments or accessories, sizes or colors and so on ,or products to fit specific consumer tastes. Surveys, by phones, mail or customer feedback forms are conducted by publication and market research companies for manufacturers and retailers. These surveys include questions about life-style, fashion preference, income, and shopping habits.(3) Customers are usually selected by the research firm to meet with manufacturers or retailers. Informal interview with consumer can help researchers obtain information by simply asking customers, what they would like to buy, what styles they prefer that are currently available and what changes in merchandise they want, but cannot find. Owners of small stores can often do this most effectively, because of their close contact with their customers.

Credit: 

1)http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/27/fashion/how-to-tell-the-fashion-future.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

2)http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolpinchefsky/2013/01/15/fashions-biggest-trend-in-2013-2015-as-predicted-by-ibm-steampunk/

3) http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/27/fashion/how-to-tell-the-fashion-future.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0